Lyudmila Putina

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Bella Kocharian, Laura Bush, Lyudmila Putina and Zorka Purvanova – first ladies of Armenia, the United States, Russia and Bulgaria respectively in 2003.

Lyudmila Putina (Russian: Людмила Александровна Путина, Lyudmila Aleksandrovna Putina, née Shkrebneva, Шкребнева) (born January 6, 1958, Kaliningrad, Soviet Union) is the wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putina studied philology and language at Leningrad State University, where she subsequently taught German. She married Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin on July 28, 1983; they have two daughters, Maria, born 1985 and Katerina (Katja) (born 1986 in Dresden). The daughters attended the German School in Moscow (Deutsche Schule Moskau) until Putin's appointment as Prime Minister in 1999.

Following tradition, Putina maintains a low profile on the Russian political stage, generally avoiding the limelight except as required by protocol and restricting her public role to supportive statements about her husband.

Putina is curator of a fund aimed to develop Russian language and sometimes produces statements concerning Russian language and education. Some claim that a minor orthography reform proposed in early 2000s was cancelled due to her influence.

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